i agree with bob that a bit of encouragement can certainly help, especially if aimed at those solo kickers out there. if there was an online community then maybe i would've never stopped kicking '97 - 2000. i honestly enjoy reading thru modified, but posts are often taken out of context & let's face it... some people are jerks.
it's just that i feel my time is better spent organizing my group locally than trying to communicate with planet footbag. last year i got every active kicker in the nashville area to sign up & join our footbag group on facebook. currently, i'm attemping to get that facebook group of 15 people sign up for twitter accounts so we can have more practices during the week.
where is everyone?
I find it interesting that fourkast has all that. I didn't realize it did. I'll have to check out the features!
Edit: I signed up for fourkast (was surprised I hadn't before) and started poking around. The profile is cool. But the forum isn't really that acceptable. And I couldn't find the user's Blogs at all. It's cool that User's can upload files. I'll have to test that out in the future. Not sure I have any video's saved atm. The site has cool features, but I think they could be presented better and more easily acceptable.
Edit: I signed up for fourkast (was surprised I hadn't before) and started poking around. The profile is cool. But the forum isn't really that acceptable. And I couldn't find the user's Blogs at all. It's cool that User's can upload files. I'll have to test that out in the future. Not sure I have any video's saved atm. The site has cool features, but I think they could be presented better and more easily acceptable.
Heya gang,
I will chime in, sorry I haven't checked my messages here in a little while. For modified, I think there are a few reasons for its decline. Some of it can be attributed to the state of the general scene right now and its lack of hype, but I do believe there are other issues. For one, other social networks have caught on, facebook has a bunch of groups now for footbag which people interact on. That's taken away a bit. The big thing is something I remember mentioning to a few of the people managing modified a handful of years back. Mainly, modified has not really been updated in a very long time. The thing with community forums is it does help to keep them fresh and spinning. If you see that your forum is starting to lose people, it is probably good to do something about it before it gets worse. Having a great forum takes work. It's no secret I am also heavily involved in the competitive gaming scene these days, here is an example of their most popular forum for fighting games;
http://www.shoryuken.com
It is updated constantly (daily) with news and other information, the admistrators and super mods are constantly brainstorming ways to excite the community, and the forum on a whole is simply crackling with energy. Granted the fighting game scene is larger than the freestyle footbag scene (still a subculture however), but the point is there is a team of people constantly working to keep it fresh and relevant.
With modified, it almost seems the site as a whole has been adrift for some time, I don't think a lot of people know exactly who is manning the ship these days. Maybe a concerted effort by a few people to update the site and manage it might be helpful. I remember Mike Hansen was key in the process for some time, but that was a while ago.
For Fourkast, I think it is great someone found their way into the forum there. It was never officially activated (or announced), though we installed it we chose to focus on other things as there were two other forums out there already. With the first version of the 4K site there were things that worked, and things that we were trying out. I have been busy last couple of months launching our other business (Best Bout Gaming), which we just opened a commercial location for. We will be updating Fourkast in the not too distant future, getting feedback from the community will be key. Aside from that, I have the same love for footbag as I always have, and look forward to being able to continue to help out in the scene. It would be nice to see this forum or another footbag forum rise up again, I do believe that would be good for the scene. Even though there are facebook groups, youtube channels, twitter and so on, it is important to have a community board specific to the sport that is healthy and thriving. When people see what's supposed to be the main spot for footbag talk looking desolate and outdated, it probably doesn't strike inspiration in many. From what I have learned from promoting other healthy forums, I would be happy to interact and give advice to anyone who wants to take up the cause. Footbag is certainly worth it.
I will chime in, sorry I haven't checked my messages here in a little while. For modified, I think there are a few reasons for its decline. Some of it can be attributed to the state of the general scene right now and its lack of hype, but I do believe there are other issues. For one, other social networks have caught on, facebook has a bunch of groups now for footbag which people interact on. That's taken away a bit. The big thing is something I remember mentioning to a few of the people managing modified a handful of years back. Mainly, modified has not really been updated in a very long time. The thing with community forums is it does help to keep them fresh and spinning. If you see that your forum is starting to lose people, it is probably good to do something about it before it gets worse. Having a great forum takes work. It's no secret I am also heavily involved in the competitive gaming scene these days, here is an example of their most popular forum for fighting games;
http://www.shoryuken.com
It is updated constantly (daily) with news and other information, the admistrators and super mods are constantly brainstorming ways to excite the community, and the forum on a whole is simply crackling with energy. Granted the fighting game scene is larger than the freestyle footbag scene (still a subculture however), but the point is there is a team of people constantly working to keep it fresh and relevant.
With modified, it almost seems the site as a whole has been adrift for some time, I don't think a lot of people know exactly who is manning the ship these days. Maybe a concerted effort by a few people to update the site and manage it might be helpful. I remember Mike Hansen was key in the process for some time, but that was a while ago.
For Fourkast, I think it is great someone found their way into the forum there. It was never officially activated (or announced), though we installed it we chose to focus on other things as there were two other forums out there already. With the first version of the 4K site there were things that worked, and things that we were trying out. I have been busy last couple of months launching our other business (Best Bout Gaming), which we just opened a commercial location for. We will be updating Fourkast in the not too distant future, getting feedback from the community will be key. Aside from that, I have the same love for footbag as I always have, and look forward to being able to continue to help out in the scene. It would be nice to see this forum or another footbag forum rise up again, I do believe that would be good for the scene. Even though there are facebook groups, youtube channels, twitter and so on, it is important to have a community board specific to the sport that is healthy and thriving. When people see what's supposed to be the main spot for footbag talk looking desolate and outdated, it probably doesn't strike inspiration in many. From what I have learned from promoting other healthy forums, I would be happy to interact and give advice to anyone who wants to take up the cause. Footbag is certainly worth it.
heh, yeah. Ironically, it is down at the moment because they are doing a massive update and changing the site to a new more efficient type of forum with more options. Updating with the times it seems, not a bad thing to do...
Doing pretty well, just need a day off sooner or later ; ) Can't complain however, still need to play more footbag though.
Doing pretty well, just need a day off sooner or later ; ) Can't complain however, still need to play more footbag though.
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F[uns]tylin' Eclectic
- Post Master General
- Posts: 4092
- Joined: 05 Feb 2010 19:53
- Location: Drumore, PA
Hey y'allz. Bob, first off, great post here. Secondly, Ken, thanks for the mentioning earlier on that I was one of the few new enthusiasts. That was pretty awesome to read. Tony, I'm back from my intership in Canada now!
Anyway, like Ken stated, I'm sort of new to the community on Modified, and I have no idea what it used to be like on here. However, I feel like it is true about some of the things people have said about the "greats" not being on modified any more. That really sucks for newer players.
I'm so thankful for people like Bob (who took me under his wing quite a few years back and taught me everything I know), Matt Cross (who is always happy to give advice), Ken (who has always been extremely helpful to me with tips), and Jay (who sent me good vibes when I was holding my first tournament, when I really needed it, because I was pretty nervous for that). It's these "greats" that keep my footbag spirits up and who keep pushing me to train and get better. I'm definitely missing a good handful, but you know who you are if you've helped me along the way. It's help like this through modified or even through personal encounter that really pushes a newer player harder than you could imagine. And those of you who stay on modified, thank you immensely. One little push can be like 10 big shoves, whether you realize it or not.
It just really blows that some of the "greats" seem to think they've gotten too goo for modified. It's hard to learn footbag if you have no one to play with or no one to teach you. I try to help the community as much as I can. I frequent, not only the forums, but the Memberlist quite often. I'm constantly looking out for new players who are either around my general area or even if I know that there is a footbag scene in their area. I point them to footbag .org to the clubs section, because I just WISH someone could have done that for me so long ago while I was floundering around being tiltless and completely one-sided.
I've also pretty much established the basis of the Ohio shred scene. I have a friend, Nick Pasquarello, who I got into freestyle and he was all alone in Columbus Ohio for a little while. Then I bumped into Mike Angeski for the first time at East Coasts and he told me he was from Ohio... I called Nick on the spot and sure enough they were 15 or so minutes away from each other.
As for other new enthusiasts... My good friend/student/neighbor, Jackson is now a footbag nut. He's going to start using Modified more often now that he's become more hooked on the sport. I got him into the sport, and he recently got about 3 of his friends seriously interested.
Another friend of mine who I got into footbag, Stefan, is a member on Modified now, but is pretty busy with his internship, so doesn't have the time to post right now. He's constantly texting me his new tiltless records.
I love seeing new players thrive and love the sport like these guys and so many more I didn't mention. So if you see a new player on the forum (or memberlist), help them out, like Bob said, give them a tip or two. Supply them with information of a local club. Give them props on a new trick, even if it's pdx mirage, or osis, or even consecutive insides kicks, for pete's sake. Footbag spreads by demonstrating that you can have a blast while playing it, and through word of mouth. If we show new players that Modified isn't a bunch of assholes being assholes and getting down on you for being new at footbag, then I believe these kinds of things will boost the world of footbag more than I think we can even believe.
Sorry for the earful, but I hope I've made some valid points.
Anyway, like Ken stated, I'm sort of new to the community on Modified, and I have no idea what it used to be like on here. However, I feel like it is true about some of the things people have said about the "greats" not being on modified any more. That really sucks for newer players.
I'm so thankful for people like Bob (who took me under his wing quite a few years back and taught me everything I know), Matt Cross (who is always happy to give advice), Ken (who has always been extremely helpful to me with tips), and Jay (who sent me good vibes when I was holding my first tournament, when I really needed it, because I was pretty nervous for that). It's these "greats" that keep my footbag spirits up and who keep pushing me to train and get better. I'm definitely missing a good handful, but you know who you are if you've helped me along the way. It's help like this through modified or even through personal encounter that really pushes a newer player harder than you could imagine. And those of you who stay on modified, thank you immensely. One little push can be like 10 big shoves, whether you realize it or not.
It just really blows that some of the "greats" seem to think they've gotten too goo for modified. It's hard to learn footbag if you have no one to play with or no one to teach you. I try to help the community as much as I can. I frequent, not only the forums, but the Memberlist quite often. I'm constantly looking out for new players who are either around my general area or even if I know that there is a footbag scene in their area. I point them to footbag .org to the clubs section, because I just WISH someone could have done that for me so long ago while I was floundering around being tiltless and completely one-sided.
I've also pretty much established the basis of the Ohio shred scene. I have a friend, Nick Pasquarello, who I got into freestyle and he was all alone in Columbus Ohio for a little while. Then I bumped into Mike Angeski for the first time at East Coasts and he told me he was from Ohio... I called Nick on the spot and sure enough they were 15 or so minutes away from each other.
As for other new enthusiasts... My good friend/student/neighbor, Jackson is now a footbag nut. He's going to start using Modified more often now that he's become more hooked on the sport. I got him into the sport, and he recently got about 3 of his friends seriously interested.
Another friend of mine who I got into footbag, Stefan, is a member on Modified now, but is pretty busy with his internship, so doesn't have the time to post right now. He's constantly texting me his new tiltless records.
I love seeing new players thrive and love the sport like these guys and so many more I didn't mention. So if you see a new player on the forum (or memberlist), help them out, like Bob said, give them a tip or two. Supply them with information of a local club. Give them props on a new trick, even if it's pdx mirage, or osis, or even consecutive insides kicks, for pete's sake. Footbag spreads by demonstrating that you can have a blast while playing it, and through word of mouth. If we show new players that Modified isn't a bunch of assholes being assholes and getting down on you for being new at footbag, then I believe these kinds of things will boost the world of footbag more than I think we can even believe.
Sorry for the earful, but I hope I've made some valid points.
I agree with Laroche... a couple people have made comments similar to Nick P and Bob's, but I haven't really seen any evidence of it. A lot of the best players in the world aren't native English speakers, and hence are less likely to participate on an English language forum like this. And several of the best American players never posted here in the first place, so it's not like they left. People communicate in different ways, so the fact that some don't go for forums like this doesn't mean they should be accused of elitism...maybe they just prefer talking on the phone or in person or some other form of communication/participation.F[uns]tylin' Eclectic wrote:It just really blows that some of the "greats" seem to think they've gotten too goo for modified.
As for the few examples of great players who used to post regularly here, I think (as Laroche said) they just lost a lot of interest in the sport.
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Outsider
- Ayatollah of Rock n' Rollah
- Posts: 1373
- Joined: 21 May 2003 21:30
- Location: Bridgewater, New Jersey
I think alot of great players don't post here because they don't like Ken.
Then again, some great players only post here because they don't like Ken.
Then again, some great players only post here because they don't like Ken.
"The time has come to convert the unbelievers..."
Jonathan Schneider --- sometimes showers with his Lavers on (to clean them)
The Ministry of Silly Walks
NYFA
BAP
Jonathan Schneider --- sometimes showers with his Lavers on (to clean them)
The Ministry of Silly Walks
NYFA
BAP
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Frank_Sinatra
- Avenging Disco Godfather
- Posts: 1660
- Joined: 09 Jan 2007 12:43
- Location: Chicago, IL
Interesting that now we're just talking about "great players." There's a few people who don't post anymore and, while maybe not considered "great players," are definitely good people & I always liked reading their posts. Sometimes I liked their posts a helluva lot more than the greats.
I know there are people who don't come to modified because most of the people they knew back in the day don't come to modified. I used to be able to read 20 or more blogs from people that I knew personally, now its like five or six.
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F[uns]tylin' Eclectic
- Post Master General
- Posts: 4092
- Joined: 05 Feb 2010 19:53
- Location: Drumore, PA
Clavens, Lon, Ianek, Flash, Penske, Suderman, etc..C-Fan wrote:
I agree with Laroche... a couple people have made comments similar to Nick P and Bob's, but I haven't really seen any evidence of it.
I haven't seen posts from those dudes in a hot minute. I'm not saying that they're all too cocky to post anymore, but that it's almost as if now that they're all elite, modified is too dinky for them.
Nothing against those guys, I respect them all so much, but I feel like they all still play (or maybe I'm wrong with some of them? that could definitely be extremely possible...) but don't bother with modified anymore because they're at such a high level...
All of the above is Option A...
Option B is that I'm pulling all of that out of my ass while trying to back up my story. That's pretty possible too. Didn't mean to piss anyone off by any of this.
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landon palmer
- Shredalicious
- Posts: 81
- Joined: 21 Mar 2010 09:11
- Location: arlington texas
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F[uns]tylin' Eclectic
- Post Master General
- Posts: 4092
- Joined: 05 Feb 2010 19:53
- Location: Drumore, PA
Ok, wellll, I guess my Option B was correct. My mistake for posting without proper knowledge people. I was just going off of what I noticed, but I guess I wasn't paying enough attention.Asmus wrote:Lon, Penske and Flash have all been "elite" for years and probably even joined modified after they where at worldclass level.
The others have also posted after they became worldclass players.
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hacksterbator
- Washed-Up Child Star
- Posts: 4141
- Joined: 12 Jul 2003 18:33
- Location: Winterpeg, Manisnowba
- Contact:
Figured i'm here at the moment, so I might as well chime in. Here's some of the reason's I'm not around much:
Right now, I'm a retired, fair-weather kicker. If there's a group of friends kicking and it's nice outside, I'm in. I'm not interested in getting better, so if it's winter, or I'm by my self, I'm not too keen to have a kick.
Other areas of my life have taken a much bigger amount of my time, work and school primarily. I'm also doing volunteer work for some organizations I'm passionate about. I'm also getting involved in some other sports and experiencing new things. Sometimes, change is good.
I achieved my footbag goals, so checking into modified to keep up with my "rivals" and to keep on top of what moves I need in my repertoire aren't pressing matters. While I miss the scene on occasion (usually when worlds rolls around), I'm not about to spend my limited resources to attend tournaments, even though it would be fun to see some old friends and make some new ones.
Our local scene has shifted from a freestyle focused one, to a predominantly net focused one. old players have come out of the woodwork and new players have popped up, all interested in playing net (my self included). Most of them are not on modified. We use Facebook to set up jams and communicate.
The same is true of my surf club. We've developed a great community on FB, and considering the 12 of us only actually get the chance to surf together maybe 6-8 times each year, the ability to share and post and keep everything organized on 1 site that all of our other non-surf friends are also on is a convenient time saver. A lot of my shred friends are also on FB, and I keep tabs on them through that.
...but it's the start of summer now, so I'll be around a bit more frequently. I think I've looked in on modified twice this week, so that's a first in months.
Right now, I'm a retired, fair-weather kicker. If there's a group of friends kicking and it's nice outside, I'm in. I'm not interested in getting better, so if it's winter, or I'm by my self, I'm not too keen to have a kick.
Other areas of my life have taken a much bigger amount of my time, work and school primarily. I'm also doing volunteer work for some organizations I'm passionate about. I'm also getting involved in some other sports and experiencing new things. Sometimes, change is good.
I achieved my footbag goals, so checking into modified to keep up with my "rivals" and to keep on top of what moves I need in my repertoire aren't pressing matters. While I miss the scene on occasion (usually when worlds rolls around), I'm not about to spend my limited resources to attend tournaments, even though it would be fun to see some old friends and make some new ones.
Our local scene has shifted from a freestyle focused one, to a predominantly net focused one. old players have come out of the woodwork and new players have popped up, all interested in playing net (my self included). Most of them are not on modified. We use Facebook to set up jams and communicate.
The same is true of my surf club. We've developed a great community on FB, and considering the 12 of us only actually get the chance to surf together maybe 6-8 times each year, the ability to share and post and keep everything organized on 1 site that all of our other non-surf friends are also on is a convenient time saver. A lot of my shred friends are also on FB, and I keep tabs on them through that.
...but it's the start of summer now, so I'll be around a bit more frequently. I think I've looked in on modified twice this week, so that's a first in months.
Last edited by hacksterbator on 28 May 2011 10:31, edited 1 time in total.
A.G.